


Better When He's Here

by winterfool



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: AU, Angst, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Total Fluff, also featuring Veronica's four year old OC daughter, nanny/single parent au, with a little bit of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 00:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5025973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterfool/pseuds/winterfool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Veronica hired Logan Echolls as a nanny for her four-year-old daughter in an effort to make her life less complicated. Instead he seems to be making it more so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Veronica could hear the giggles as soon as she stepped through the door. It was the most uplifting sound she could think of to come home to after a long day of tailing cheating spouses and tracking down bail jumpers; she was smiling as she hung up her keys and jacket, and kicked off her shoes.

A glance at her watch told her that it was technically past Caitlin’s bedtime, but it was only by a few minutes and she didn’t mind too much when it meant she would get to tuck her in herself tonight. Following the shrieks of laughter upstairs, Veronica paused as she came to the open doorway of her daughter’s room to take in the scene in front of her.

Four-year-old Caitlin was sat cross-legged on her bed, in her unicorn PJs and clutching her favourite stuffed rabbit toy. Her feathery blonde hair was pulled back into a short braid, and she was proudly sporting a glittery plastic tiara, several rings and a red cape. But as adorable as she looked, it was the other occupant of the room that drew most of Veronica’s attention.

That other occupant was Caitlin’s nanny, Logan, and he was currently posing for her with one hand on his hip and his chin thrust into the air like a catwalk model. A gauzy blue scarf was wrapped around his shoulders like a shawl, and several strings of shiny plastic beads were hung around his neck. He, too, was wearing a tiara.

“What do you think, hmmm?” he was saying, pausing to peer into the mirror with a pout. “Does it suit me?”

“You look very pretty,” Caitlin giggled, clapping her hands.

Logan tapped his chin with one finger. “I don’t know … I think the orange was more my colour, don’t you?”

The laughter that had been building in Veronica couldn’t be contained any longer and she gave a loud snort.

“Trust me when I say orange doesn’t look good on _anyone_.” 

Logan was momentarily startled by her appearance, whipping round to face her, but his embarrassment quickly faded back into an easy grin. “Trust _me_ when I say I can make any colour look good.”

Seeing her mother in the doorway Caitlin lit up, jumping off the bed to run towards her with a cry of, “Mommy! You’re home!”

“Heya, Kit-Kat.” Veronica held out her arms towards her daughter and lifted her up into a tight hug. Caitlin buried her face into her shoulder - which was more than a little painful when she was wearing a plastic tiara - and Veronica breathed in the smell of her. “You doing okay?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Looking back over at Logan, she realised he was watching them with a softened expression, his brown eyes warm, and tried to ignore the way that sent her heart skittering sideways.

When he caught her gaze he grinned again and started removing the jewellery and the shawl.

“You may have to prove that to me. The colour thing.”

He glanced up and winked. “Challenge accepted, Ms Mars. So, you get the bad guys?”

“Some of them.” Veronica smiled. “I’ll catch up to the rest.”

“I’ve no doubt.” 

“Mommy always catches the bad guys,” Caitlin murmured sleepily from Veronica’s arms.

“She sure does, kiddo.” Returned to his normal state, Logan watched them for another moment with his hands in his pockets, then looked up at Veronica. “I should get going.”

Ignoring the pang of disappointment, she nodded. “Thanks for staying late.”

“It’s no problem. I like spending time with the munchkin.”

“Do you have to go?” Caitlin asked, rubbing her eyes.

His eyes drifted slowly to meet Veronica’s, and she raised her eyebrows in a silent echo of her daughter’s question. It wouldn’t be the first time he had stayed for a while after she was home; some nights when she was late she brought home take-out and he would stay and eat it with her, maybe watch a movie, and always laugh and talk.

And if she sometimes found herself admiring his leanly muscled physique, or flirting in a way that was completely unprofessional … well, she was only human. And she told herself it was okay since he flirted back, and she had definitely caught his eyes on the lower half of her body more than once.

It wasn't wrong of her to want to jump an attractive man’s bones. It was just awkward since she was paying him to take care of her child.

She could see in his face he wasn’t going to stay tonight though, and again felt a cold surge of disappointment.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said to Caitlin, then looked to Veronica. “I’ll see myself out, don’t worry. Usual time on Monday?”

“Please. Thanks again, Logan.”

She stepped aside to let him pass, her eyes lingering on him as he disappeared down the stairs. Holding back a sigh, she turned her attention back to her now half-asleep daughter.

“Alright, Kit-Kat, time for bed. You brushed your teeth?”

“Uh-huh.”

She gently removed the tiara, rings and cape, and then lowered Caitlin into bed and pulled her Little Mermaid duvet cover tightly around her. She was smoothing a few stray blonde strands from Caitlin’s forehead when the little girl wriggled around to look up at her.

“I don’t like it when Logan goes away. It’s better when he’s here.”

Veronica’s heart gave a painful lurch, and she bent down to kiss her daughter.

“I know Kit-Kat. I think so, too.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Alright, Kit-Kat.” Veronica pushed her sunglasses up on to her head and looked down at her daughter, who was clutching her hand tightly. “You ready?”

Caitlin nodded solemnly, her blonde ponytail bobbing up and down and her blue eyes bright. “Yep!”

Smiling, Veronica turned back to the door they were standing in front of and lifted a hand to knock. This was slightly more difficult with a brown bag in the hand that wasn’t holding Caitlin’s, but she managed to rap smartly with her top knuckles. 

It was a few minutes before the door swung open and that brief time stretched on interminably, each second marked by a nervous thud of Veronica’s heart against her ribs. It was ridiculous, but she had begun to realise there was little point in trying to fight the flutter of butterflies that seemed to gather whenever she was about to see –

“Veronica? Caitlin?” Judging from Logan’s sleep-bemused expression, they were last people he had expected to find on his doorstep.

He was wearing checked pyjama trousers and a UCLA tshirt, his light brown hair in messy clumps, and looked like he had just gotten out of bed - which, in all fairness, he probably had. Another time Veronica might not have minded, and would have taken the opportunity to admire the way the tshirt clung to his lean frame and showed off his muscled arms; today her attention focused on the red nose and spots of warm colour in his cheeks that showed he hadn’t just been in bed out of laziness.

“Hey, you.”

“Logan!” Caitlin beamed up at him. “We came to make you feel better.”

Some of the bleariness in Logan's eyes cleared as he focused on the toddler. The corner of his mouth crooked up in a smile. “You did, huh?”

“Yep! We brought soup and everything.”

He looked questioningly up at Veronica and she jiggled the brown bag in reply. 

“Guess you’d better come in, then,” he said, standing to one side to let them through.

“It would be in very bad taste to leave us out here,” Veronica agreed, letting Caitlin scamper into the apartment ahead of her. 

Logan’s place was spacious but simple. The door opened on to an open plan living room and kitchen area, decorated in pale, pastel colours. A squashy leather sofa and a couple of chairs were set around a coffee table in the middle of the room, with a TV in one corner, and bookcases lining the walls. In the few spare spaces there were classic movie posters and a couple of pieces of artwork hanging up. Two doors led off on one side, presumably to a bedroom and bathroom. The kitchen had an island with a few bar stools around it, and wall cupboards that matched the counters. At the back of the living room were glass doors that led out to a balcony area, complete with deck chairs and several brightly coloured potted plants.

As she brushed past Logan, Veronica tilted her head up towards him to ask, “How are you feeling?”

Logan shrugged, closing the door behind them. “I’m starting to forget what it feels like to breathe out of my nose. That’s not a good sign, I’m thinking.”

He sounded heavily blocked, his words heavy, so rather than make a quip about mouth-breathing Veronica reached up to feel his forehead. His skin was hot beneath her hand, and not in a good way. She frowned; it wasn’t a very high fever, but it was enough to make her glad they had decided to drop by and check in on him.

“You’re warm.”

“Am I?”

Her eyes met his, and it suddenly dawned on her how close they were standing and how much taller than her he was. Her head barely came up to his chin and his body towered over hers, big and strong and solid. Before she could stop herself, she was wondering what it would feel like to have that body pressed up against hers.

 _Stop it! He’s sick. You’re here to take care of him._

“Yeah.” She pulled her hand back and deliberately stepped away, putting some space between them. Cool air seemed to rush in around her with just that small step. “Why don’t you go and get back into bed while I heat this up?”

She held up the brown bag again. Logan eyed it suspiciously.

“Did you –”

“No, I didn’t make it. Relax.”

Logan glanced over at Caitlin, who had clambered up on to the couch, one eyebrow raised as if to ask, _Do I trust her?_

When Caitlin nodded, stifling a giggle at her mother’s scowl, he grinned, a brilliant flash of light across his face. Then the next moment turned away as a cough welled up and racked through his body. Veronica winced in sympathy.

When the coughs subsided, Logan looked back to her. “Bed. Yeah. That’s probably a good idea.”

“I’ll come with you,” Caitlin volunteered, “and tuck you in.”

“Will you sing me a bed-time song?” 

“Yes, and Violetta will, too.” She held up the stuffed rabbit she was carrying, her favourite toy. “I brought her ‘cause she always makes me feel better when I’m sick.”

Logan smiled. “Then I’m sure she’ll make me feel better, too.”

Once they had disappeared through the left-hand doorway, Veronica headed into the kitchen. She shrugged off her jacket, throwing it on to the island counter, and started searching through the cupboards until she found a bowl. She could hear Caitlin’s high pitched singing as she poured the soup in and set it heating for a couple of minutes in the microwave. 

Left alone, Veronica couldn’t help the instinct to have a quick look around. Although she considered Logan a close friend by now, this was the first time she had been inside his apartment. She felt like she was getting to see another a part of him, an inside look at who he really was and what made him tick.

Her attention was immediately drawn by the photographs on the bookshelves. Some were with friends, from high school and college. One was with a woman that had to be his mom, Lynn, who had died when he was young; he always wore a sad smile when he spoke of her. Then there was one with a girl, no more than ten or eleven, with short, reddish-brown hair and braces. That presumably was Heather, who he had babysat for as a favour to a friend but he had ended up really caring for. Logan had told Veronica over Chinese takeaway one of the nights he had stayed late that it was his time with Heather that had got him thinking about childcare in the first place.

There were a few others with kids he had must have looked after, all of them not yet school aged. It was sweet that he kept them out here, that he still cared about them long after his commitments were finished.

The microwave bleeped, bringing her back to the present.

When she carried the soup into Logan’s room, she found him tucked comfortably into bed, Caitlin sat cross-legged beside him telling them that she had also brought The Little Mermaid with her so they could watch that if he wanted.

Like the rest of his apartment, Logan’s bedroom was tastefully but minimally furnished. The double bed took up most of the room, nightstands either side, but there was a large wardrobe against one wall and against the other, beneath the window, a desk and computer. The walls were painted a soothing, duck-egg blue, the carpet a plain cream. 

As she crossed the room, Veronica noticed there was one other photo sat on Logan’s desk. It was one of her Caitlin and herself, from an afternoon she had come home early and the three of them had had a picnic together. They were both laughing at the camera, carefree and happy.

Her chest abruptly feeling very tight, she sat down on the edge of the bed and held out the soup bowl. 

“Here you go. Or does the invalid need feeding?”

“Well, if you’re offering …” Logan said, pushing himself into a sitting position and somehow managing to make the words sound suggestive even with a voice thick with cold. Though the effect was slightly ruined when he sneezed loudly.

Grinning, Veronica kicked her shoes off and swivelled around into a cross-legged position to match Caitlin’s so she was facing him. “Open up, then. We can watch The Little Mermaid after you’ve eaten.”

She started to lifted the spoon, but Logan’s fingers on her wrist made her pause.

“I … I really appreciate this. But are you sure you wanna stay? What if I get you guys sick?”

Veronica just smiled and shrugged. “Then you’ll have to come and take care of us.”


	3. Chapter 3

The quiet moments were Veronica’s favourite part of motherhood. Not that she didn’t love the loud moments, when Caitlin was running around in a wide-eyed ball of energy, excited about everyone and everything, but there was something about the quiet moments that were particularly special.

When she was reading Caitlin a story, cuddling her close, or brushing her hair, or, like now, when she was just watching her drop off to sleep, her feathery blonde hair spread out like a halo on the pillow, Veronica felt more at peace than she could ever remember feeling at any other time in her life. The quiet moments let her marvel at the sight and feel of her own flesh and blood, let her savour the fact that somehow she, in all her screwed-up, hard-edged glory, had managed to produce something so pure and good – and even better, that so far she seemed to be doing an okay job raising her.

That was what she had been most afraid of both before Caitlin was born and then again every day since she first held her daughter in her arms, tiny and fine-boned and fragile and utterly perfect in every way: that even with the best dad in the world as a role model, she wouldn’t be a good enough parent. But somehow she was doing okay.

Maybe she had worked extra hard because she had known she would be the only parent Caitlin would have. She and Josh had already split up by the time she found out she was pregnant, and he made it clear from the start he wasn’t ready to be a father. He would pay child support if she wanted, but he didn’t want to be involved at all. Veronica didn’t mind; in her experience an absent parent was better than a bad one.

And she had done her best to make sure Caitlin’s life wasn’t devoid of male influences. There was her dad, who doted adoringly on his granddaughter and never refused her anything. There was Wallace and even Weevil, whose own little girl was a regular playmate of Caitlin’s. And there was Logan.

Logan.

Logan, who was probably still waiting downstairs. Logan, who was becoming a serious complication.

Sighing a little, Veronica pressed a light kiss to her sleeping daughter’s temple and then quietly slipped from the room and back down the stairs.

The living room was empty, but since Logan’s jacket was still hung up by the door she knew he hadn’t left. She padded through to the kitchen in search of him and sure enough there he was, washing the last of the dishes.

Veronica paused in the doorway, just watching him for a moment. His back was turned to her, so she was able to admire the movement of his shoulders beneath his shirt, the sleeves of which were rolled up to the elbows, showing off his strong, muscular forearms and …

… _easy girl. They’re just forearms._

A sudden headache seemed to be pounding behind her eyes and she resisted the urge to reach up and knead her temples.

Hiring a nanny for Caitlin had been necessary; her hours at the office weren’t always regular, so it wasn’t always going to be possible to drop Caitlin at a daycare in the morning and pick her up in the afternoon like other working parents would. And while Keith was always happy to take his granddaughter for a few hours in the evenings, and Wallace or Mac would gladly help out, Veronica felt bad about always needing to ask their help. A nanny seemed the best solution.

When she came to that decision, Veronica had admittedly been envisioning a Mary Poppins type figure. Not someone who flew by umbrella and slid up the bannister, but a woman, matronly (and probably older), who knew what she was doing with children.

Instead Logan Echolls had turned up on her doorstep. Despite her surprise, she had liked him straight away - his eyes were warm and held just a hint of mischief, his smile was easy and open and his quick wit meshed with her own in a way few people’s did. When Caitlin took to him, it seemed a no brainer.

And then over the late nights and odd hours, he had evolved from just being Caitlin’s nanny to being Veronica’s friend, and a confidante. Which was a good thing. It was much easier to feel she was leaving Caitlin with someone she trusted completely.

Until suddenly it got complicated. Until seeing his grin started sending whole swarms of butterflies beating their wings in her stomach. Until she started daydreaming about him when he wasn’t there and wishing he was around when she saw something ridiculous so they could laugh about it together. Until when he phoned to say he was sick her first instinct was to march straight over to his apartment and look after him.

Until she could close her eyes and picture his face in perfect detail, and couldn’t stop thinking about how much she really, really wanted to run her hands all over his body. And kept waking up from dreams in which he was running his hands all over hers.

Oh yes, Logan Echolls was a serious complication all right.

As Veronica tried to comb through the tangle of her thoughts, he set the last of the dishes in the rack. He turned to dry his hands on a towel, and spotted her in the doorway. 

“Hey,” he said quietly, one corner of his mouth quirking up. Veronica’s heart thudded against her ribs. “She asleep?”

“Yeah. Thanks,” she nodded towards the dishes.

“No problem. I, ah, I actually wanted to talk to you.”

Curious, Veronica raised one eyebrow. “What about?”

He didn’t answer straight away, so while he sorted out whatever was going through his head Veronica moved to start putting the dishes away. She felt strangely tense as she waited; there was something about his demeanour that was more serious than usual. The laughter that always seemed to be lurking just at the back of his eyes and under his words was gone.

Finally, after the silence seemed to have stretched so taut she could almost feel it, he spoke. “It’s about next month.”

“Next month?”

“September.”

“Yes, that is usually what follows August,” Veronica said, hoping a joke might lighten the atmosphere. It didn’t.

Logan ran a hand through his hair and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “Caitlin starts pre-school next month, right?”

Feeling suddenly like she was walking on a very delicate tightrope, Veronica nodded.

“So, I won’t be needed during the day anymore.”

An icy hand seemed to have her gripped somewhere around the middle, sending cold spiralling through her.

“There’ll still be evenings … I’m not always able to get home straight away if I’m working a case, you know that …”

“I thought about that.” He pulled a folded square of paper from his pocket. “I made a list – they’re all people I know, trustworthy. They do part-time hours, so a few evenings every now and then would be fine for them.”

Veronica took it automatically but didn’t unfold it, just staring blankly at the neat white square in her hand. Oh god, how was she going to tell Caitlin? Her daughter adored Logan. This was going to devastate her.

Not to mention that Veronica herself didn’t want Logan to leave.

“You’re quitting?” For some reason it was important she hear the words out loud.

She wasn’t looking at him, but she heard his heavy sigh.

“… yeah, I am. I love Caitlin.” Somehow that just made it worse, like he had punched her in the gut. “But I think I have to quit.”

Slowly her mind started processing what he was saying, logically turning it all over.

He loved Caitlin. It wasn’t that he disliked looking after her. But he had to quit.

Which meant that logically … logically … he had to be quitting because of Veronica.

Moving very deliberately, she turned around and placed his list on the kitchen counter. She would look at it later, once her mind was working at full speed again and she no longer felt like someone had just ripped the rug out from underneath her, sending her toppling off balance.

She knew she was holding herself unnaturally stiffly, her back ramrod straight, but she couldn’t make herself relax or turn back. She just kept staring at the wall in front of her, and spoke in a flat monotone.

“I understand. Do you … will you stay until she starts school?”

“Veronica.” His voice was right beside her ear and she flinched, not having heard him move up behind her. “Aren’t you going to ask why I have to quit?”

Yes, that really would complete her humiliation.

“You don’t have to give a reason.”

She tried to move away, but his arm flashed out to bar her way.

“I want to.” She didn’t say anything, and he huffed another sigh. “Will you please look at me?”

Swallowing hard, she turned and forced herself to look up at him. She hadn’t stood this close to him since he had been sick and she had taken his temperature. This close she was very aware of his height, her eyes coming roughly level with his chest so she was looking directly at the patch of tanned skin revealed by his open shirt collar. Heat seemed to radiate off him, and Veronica could smell the woody scent of his cologne. Her pulse was racing, and it was just too bad the overwhelming desire to cry rising up inside her was ruining it all.

With a willpower she didn’t quite know she had, she met his gaze. His eyes were dark, filled with concern and nervousness and something she couldn’t quite put a name to. “Alright. Why do you have to quit?”

“Because if I stay, then I can’t … we can’t …” He was leaning over her, one arm on either side of her, braced against the counter, effectively trapping her where she stood. His face was much closer that she remembered it ever being before, and she could feel the warmth of his breath on her face. Nervous but not quite sure why, she darted her tongue out to lick her lips and then watched as Logan’s eyes immediately dropped down to look at her mouth. “I can’t …”

“Can’t what?”

He was still staring at her lips and seemed to have lost his train of thought. “Hmm?”

Heart pounding, Veronica lifted herself on to her tip toes, putting herself just an inch closer to him. “Logan? We can’t what?”

She wasn’t sure if it was a conscious decision on his part or just because there was only a hairsbreadth between them, but his reply was to kiss her.

His lips were firm but soft against hers, the kiss one long, slow, languid caress. Veronica closed her eyes, for a moment letting herself enjoy the feel of his tongue tracing the outline of her mouth and his lips working against hers. But then the leisurely kiss wasn’t enough; she wanted more, so she curled her fingers into his shirt and kissed him back, nipping gently at his lower lip.

As if that was a signal he seemed to switch gears, pulling her tightly against him and making a noise of frustrated pleasure in the back of his throat. His hands roamed over her back and waist as their mouths opened to each other, his fingers slipping skilfully beneath her tshirt and the waistband of her jeans. She let her own hands move upwards over his chest and shoulders his neck and face, then buried her fingers in his hair as if she could pull him even closer. The world seemed to have shrunk down to the taste of him on her tongue, the feel of his skin on hers, the sounds of their breath and the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears.

God. _God_. She had imagined this so many times, but the real thing was even better. Her body was on fire and it felt so good – until Logan broke away, breathing heavily.

“Shit, Veronica. That’s not – I didn’t – shit.”

That seemed something of an odd response, Veronica thought as she blinked back her kiss-induced haze and looked up at him.

“Seemed pretty good to me.”

He gave her a wry look. “I meant, I wasn’t intending to do that tonight, when we started talking. Not yet. But then you had to go and lick your lips like that …”

Veronica might have been tempted to lick her lips again just to rattle him, but she was focusing on the middle part of what he had said. “Not yet? But you were at some point?”

“I would have thought that would be obvious to you, o great detective.”

“Has anyone ever told you that sarcasm’s really unattractive?”

“Given that your leg is still hooked over mine, forgive me if I take that with a pinch of salt.”

She hadn’t even noticed she’d done that. She had been too busy focusing on getting as close to him as possible.

“Okay, okay. So. You weren’t planning to do that yet.”

“No. I wanted to, but you’re still technically my employer and while that might a great plot for an erotic novel, in real life I don’t think it’s a good idea to cross that line. That’s why I have to quit.”

“So you were going to do that ….?”

“When Caitlin starts pre-school.” He paused, then smiled, all the humour flooding back into his face. “I mean, I was going to start with dinner first, but I don’t mind moving the schedule around.”

Veronica thought about that for a moment. All the cold, hollow sadness had evaporated, leaving behind only a pleasant, buzzing kind of anticipation. She could definitely see Logan’s point – it was, after all, why she had never asked him out despite having wanted to for the better part of a year. But now he had actually kissed her and she wasn’t sure she wanted to wait another month to do it again.

“You’re quitting so you can ask me out. Because you don’t want to do this,” She gestured at their entangled bodies, “while I’m your boss.”

“You’re quick on the uptake. No wonder you’re such a good PI.”

She grinned. “You’re fired.”

“ _What_?”

“You don’t want to do this while you’re working for me. So you’re fired. Problem solved.”

Logan stared at her. “I don’t think you can fire me when I’m already quitting.”

“But you’re not quitting until next month. I’m firing you now. More expedient.”

“And what are you gonna do for the next month about Caitlin?”

She shrugged. “You gave me that list of replacements. I’ll call one of them.”

“They’re only part time nannies.”

“Then you can keep watching her. I just won’t pay you.”

He lifted an eyebrow in mock outrage. “You think you can just get my services for free?”

She pretended to think about it, bringing her hands down to run them over his chest and taking the opportunity to start unbuttoning his shirt. He didn't stop her. “I suppose I could pay you in sexual favours. That’s not the same thing as being your boss, right?”

His eyes narrowed, but they were glittering with amusement. They both knew he didn’t need the money after all, not with what he had inherited from his parents. He was a nanny because he loved his work, not because he lived paycheck to paycheck.

“What kind of sexual favours would these be?”

“I’d be happy to show you now,” Veronica teased, leaning up to kiss him. “If you’re okay with being fired.”

Logan’s hands tightened on her hips and with one smooth movement he lifted her up into his arms, settling her with her legs wound round his waist and her arms resting on his shoulders.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I’ll still get a reference, right?”

Logan was already walking out the kitchen, kissing her between words.

“Of course. And I promise it will be glowing.”


End file.
